


Paper Fortune

by Xazz



Series: R76 Valentine's Event [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Day of the Dead, El Día de los Muerto, Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Homophobia, M/M, Reaper76 Valentine's Week, Spirits, Supernatural Elements, Vampire Jack, Vampires, and other death holidays, flangst, immortal skin Jack, mariachi skin Reaper, pumpkin skin Reaper, soul mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 04:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9863597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xazz/pseuds/Xazz
Summary: Stuck between not quite dead and not quite alive Gabriel can only come to Earth when the lines between the living world and what's beyond is thin. His body is never his own and instead he possesses the decorations and effigies of the dead on holidays for the night when he can spend it with the only person who knows he actually exists, a vampire named Jack.





	

**Author's Note:**

> *SHRUGS LOUDLY* This fic was weird and fun and really I just wanted to write Jack kissing Gabe's stupid pumpkin head.
> 
> also not in the tags cause I don't wanna turn people away, but Gabe's death is mentioned. Obviously, he's not 'dead dead' but I feel I need to mention it. And it is potentially triggery with mentions of homophobic violence.

Jack unfolded the paper fortune, stared at it for a few seconds, then back up at the display. It was pretty gaudy, all things considered, but he expected nothing less at this point. He’d have probably been disappointed if it was less then completely over the top. Some early trick or treaters were already about even though it wasn’t yet dark out. Little kids with their parents wearing costumes of super heroes, or animals or little monsters. Jack just waited as it grew dark and the lights around the spooky display came up. A fat bowl of candy sat on a low altar at the feet of the scarecrow with a sign that said ‘take one. Have a great night!’

A pair of teenagers came up as the sun was setting. They looked at the scarecrow who had no head and was holding its own jack-o-lantern carved skull under its arm and then at each other, unimpressed. They each grabbed a fistful of candy. “What a stupid scarecrow. Who you think they’re going to scare with that? Babies?” They laughed as they took another fistful of candy.

“The sign says take _one_ ,” a voice said and the teenagers yelped in fright as the scarecrow stepped down from its perch onto the low table.

“Ha! Yeah. You sure got us, man,” they laughed it off but Jack could hear their blood pounding.

“Pay attention to signs,” the voice said and Jack looked down at his paper fortune again. He folded it up as the teenagers scurried away and the scarecrow stepped down from the table. Or rather one scarecrow did. The scarecrow was still hung up there. There was just now a headless man standing on the sidewalk. “Damn kids get worse every year,” the scarecrow said and lifted the jack-o-lantern head up to put it on its shoulders.

“They’re teenagers, they can’t help it,” Jack said, stepping out from the shadows.

“Oh. You’re here. Was afraid you wouldn’t show,” the voice came directly out of the open mouth of the carved pumpkin that glowed with a fire light too steady to be candlelight.

“I’m always here, Gabriel,” he said nicely.

“You could have dressed up at the very least,” the carved face didn’t change but Gabriel’s voice was disapproving.

Jack looked down at himself. “I’m Michael Jackson,” he said, looking back up.

“Who?”

“You’re not _that_ old, Gabriel. I know you know who that is,” Jack said, coming around to stand around him. Gabriel smelled like graveyard dirt, toasted pumpkin seeds and warm, worked leather. Even if he wasn’t wearing his head Jack always knew it was him by the pumpkin seed smell.

“But he had so many good looks.”

“It was the _first_ good look,” Jack said.

“Oh. Gotcha. Going for the irony. I appreciate it,” Gabriel said and when he laughed the light in the jack-o-lantern flickered like it was caught in a strong wind. “Well, since you’re here, shall we see what there is to see?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Jack said. Among other reasons. Gabriel didn’t need to be privy to them.

“Let’s see who tries to take my head off first,” Gabriel said.

“I’m betting an annoying teenage boy,” Jack said.

“I’m not dumb enough to take that bet,” Gabriel said and Jack chuckled.

They wandered the neighborhood, ‘scarecrow’ and ‘vampire’, admiring the Halloween decorations and sneaking up on adults since neither of them cast shadows even when flashlights passed over them. More than once Gabriel made one of the smaller children scream in fright when he took off his jack-o-lantern head and lowered it to their eye level to keep talking to them.

The night went on, the Halloween festivities waned as the moon rose and Jack and Gabriel were the only two still out and about in the town. They walked past closed stores covered in Halloween decorations and eventually came to a park. “Here, hold this for me,” Gabriel said, took his head off and tossed it to Jack who caught it in surprise. Then Gabriel’s body ran off into the dark.

“What are you doing?” Jack asked and sat on a park bench, holding Gabriel’s great pumpkin head on his lap. Last time Gabriel had given him his head he’d wandered off with it and Gabriel’s body had gotten lost somewhere and they’d only found it just before dawn. Bad for the both of them. Gabriel could only exist in this world at night and Jack and the sun didn’t exactly get along.

“Nothing. Just letting my hair out,” Gabriel said.

“Gabe… you have no hair,” he rubbed the top of the jack-o-lantern to make a point.

“It’s a figure of speech! Man, you act like you’ve never heard one.”

“I’m teasing you. No need to lose your head over-

“Oh shut the fuck up,” Gabriel said, annoyed and Jack wondered how much he wished his head could move so he could scowl at Jack. Jack just chuckled. “This year was fun. I love Halloween.”

“Me too,” Jack said. Really he didn’t care about the holiday. It was just one of the few days out of the year he could see Gabriel.

“That’s good I- oh! Found it.”

“Found what? You better not bring something gross over here. I might be undead but I’m into dead things,” he groaned. Which was why he liked Gabriel so much. He wasn’t dead, or undead. He was just another sort of living.

“It isn’t gross. You’re such a sissy for a vampire, Jack. Only vampire I know who gets all weird about dead things.”

“Gabriel. I’m literally _the_ only vampire you know.”

“That’s completely besides the point,” Gabriel huffed. “You see it yet?”

Jack looked away from the bright light that made up visage and out into the dark. “Not yet,” he said.

“Tell me when you do and go meet it.”

“Or I could just sit here,” Jack said and patted the side of the pumpkin head.

“Don’t be annoying vampire, boy.” Jack just chuckled and a few seconds later Jack saw Gabriel’s body come into view. He got up and walked towards it, holding Gabriel’s head under his arm. When he met up with Gabriel’s body he gingerly put the head back up on his shoulders. Gabriel rolled his head around a little on a neck he didn’t actually have and then held up what he’d found.

“Where did you find something like this? It’s midnight,” Jack said as he took the very strangely real and not disgusting and somehow not stolen large, red, lollipop

“Don’t question the magic,” Gabriel said.

“You realize I’m not going to eat it right?” Jack asked when they stood there a moment, Gabriel looking at him in what Jack could honestly onto describe as anticipation. “I can’t eat solids anymore. But I appreciate the gesture. It’s very nice.” At the very least he gave it a lick. It was very sweet. So long as he didn’t bite it he’d probably be alright, it was just sugar and he could deal with sugar, better energy source than blood but not nearly as good for him. He gave the lollipop a few more licks before very self consciously becoming aware of the fact that Gabriel was staring at him. Or he thought he was. It was so hard to tell with Gabriel if he was staring since his face was just a carving. If he had the ability to, he’d have blushed. Instead he just put the entire sucker in his mouth so he couldn’t lick it anymore then realized it didn’t fit in his mouth very comfortably and looked very awkward but was now too self conscious to take it out again.

“I thought you said you don’t eat solids,” Gabriel said.

“It’s literally just going to be sugar water. It’s fine,” Jack said around the sucker in his mouth like an asshole.

At the very least the rest of the night wasn’t as awkward as that. They spent the rest of the night just talking and Jack threw the lollipop away. Then it started to get early. Predawn lightened the sky and they headed back to where Gabriel’s effigy had been placed from earlier that night. There was no candy left in the bowl and the lights had been turned down. Unlike earlier the street was quiet, the lights in the houses all turned off. “Will I see you tomorrow night?” Gabriel asked as Jack stood with him by the decorations. The light inside his jack-o-lantern was dimmer now. His time was running out. So was Jack’s. He needed to get somewhere inside before dawn.

“Depends on where you pop out,” Jack said.

“I hope I see you tomorrow. It’s always more enjoyable when I get to spend nights on Earth with you.”

Jack smiled a little. “Careful, I’ll get all choked up.”

Gabriel laughed. “Goodnight, Jack.”

“Goodnight,” Jack said and he had to leave. His phone alarm was vibrating like a mad man in his pocket telling him dawn was coming. He found his car with the deeply blacked out windows and got in just as the sun came up. He sat in the driver’s seat and took out his paper fortune. He sighed. “Really? That’s four states away. I’m not going to get any sleep,” he groaned. Then he rubbed his face and drove off. He drove past Gabriel’s effigy and in the light it looked so benign and normal. Well, no time for that, he had to get to New Mexico.

—

Jack did manage to catch about three hours of sleep before dusk on November first. He’d driven all day and after staying up all night to be with Gabriel he was completely exhausted. While he slept he dreamed.

He dreamed of what had once been. He dreamed of Gabriel without a mask. His teeth a pearly crescent against dark skin when he smiled. His curly hair that turned light brown in summer and almost black in winter. He woke up smelling dried blood and looked around tiredly. It was just past dusk and he stumbled out of the driver’s seat. Before going off he changed his clothes behind the door of his car. Then with a yawn, he went off to find Gabriel.

He found him easily enough. He was sitting with some hispanic children around a Día de los Muerto display dressed as a skeletal mariachi with a guitar and he was singing some song to them in Spanish. His head was a perfectly intricate resin candy skull and when he talked the jaw even moved, meaning the decoration could also move. Jack stood back while Gabe strummed the big bellied guitar and sang some very happy sounding song. Then the song ended and Gabriel looked around and saw Jack was there. “Lo siento niños, eso es todo por ahora. Me tengo que ir, mi amigo está aquí.,” Gabriel said to their whining. Gabe had to step around them and tripped a little but caught himself so he came up just short of running into Jack. Instead he ended up standing right in front of him, his sombrero big enough to cover them both. “Jack, you’re here. I was afraid you weren’t going to come.”

“Slept in a little. Nice hat,” he smirked and flicked the black sombrero with a finger.

“I think it looks very dashing. Hides the fact that I’m a bone head.”

Jack laughed. “I don’t think anything could do that,” he said, still smiling.

He stepped out from under the shadow of Gabriel’s sombrero. “Día de los Muerto is a better holiday than Halloween,” he said.

“You won’t hear me argue that,” Gabriel said.

Unlike Halloween at the town a few states away the festival for Día de los Muerto had more to do. Along with visiting the dead it was basically a party and there was a two-day street fair going on that sold everything from candy skulls to tacos to every meat you could imagine cooked on a stick and about six thousand candy skull shaped souvenirs or offerings. There were also flowers everywhere that led to the graveyard in town so the ghosts and dead could find their way back in the morning. Everyone wanted a picture of Gabriel for his ‘amazing costume’ and Gabriel was in a good enough mood to allow it most of the time. A few times he even slung the guitar around and played something to the delight of everyone around. Jack just watched with a smile when he did and tried to stay out of photos so people wouldn’t wonder why he didn’t show up in their camera roll later.

Like Halloween the festivities eventually died down. The street fair shut down, people returned to their homes. The moon was almost full that night and even as many lights went out and if you didn’t stay in the well lit area of the street lights you could see just fine. Jack and Gabriel made their way to the graveyard where all the gravestones had been decorated and offerings had been left. Candles burned everywhere to help light the way for the spirits of the dead. They ended up sitting on a stone wall and Gabriel slung his guitar around and started to pluck at the strings. He played in silence for a little while before he started to sing in Spanish. Jack just closed his eyes and listened. Gabriel went back and forth between just playing the guitar and singing and they hardly spoke at all. By the time the night was coming to an end they sat back to back on the wall so they could lean against each other while Gabriel strummed on the strings of the guitar.

“Jack,” Gabriel said in the darkness of the early morning. The candles had all burned out by now and there was just the moon left. Jack admitted to dozing a little those last few hours while he listened to Gabriel play his guitar.

“Hmm?” he said tiredly.

“It’s almost morning.”

“Yeah,” Jack said and they leaned away from each other. Jack rubbed his face and they slid off the wall and headed back into town. They found the display with Gabriel’s effigy back where Jack had found him singing to the children. “I enjoyed tonight,” Jack said as Gabriel stepped up onto the first platform his effigy was hung upon.

“Me too,” Gabriel said. “Not like our usual nights,” he leaned over a little, shadowing Jack in his black sombrero.

“It was nice, though. Nothing wrong with a little quiet and a good musician to fill the silence.”

“Oh, you flatter me,” Gabriel said, his resin skull jaw clacking a little as he talked.

“I do that sometimes.”

“Will I see you tomorrow?”

“Depends on where you come out. If not I’ll see you for Dia de los Natitas.”

“That feels so far away,” Gabriel said.

“Heh… yeah,” Jack said. His phone started vibrating in his pocket. “Dawn’s coming. I need to go.”

“Same,” Gabriel said and pulled back. Jack turned and walked away, back to his car.

The sun’s first few rays struck him across the forehead as he dived into his car. He used his hand to check his head and only felt skin like a bad sunburn. So he wasn’t in danger. Good. He crawled to the back and laid down on the back seat for some actual sleep. Before he did he pulled out his paper fortune. “Damnit,” he whispered. Tomorrow Gabriel would be in fucking _Rome_. Of course, it was going to be in god damn Rome for All Souls Day. He couldn’t have popped up in some other catholic church, he had to show up at The Catholic church. There was no way he could get to Rome in time for tomorrow night. It was already tomorrow afternoon over there and he couldn’t easily get on a plane to get across the Atlantic. It’d take too long.

He sighed and resigned himself to having to see Gabriel on Dia de los Natitas. This time when he slept it was without dreams.

—

Fall was Jack’s favorite season. He hated all the others. Mainly because he was alone. It was like some great conspiracy that all holidays to honor the dead happened during the fall. Some cultures had dead honoring celebrations at other times of the year but few of them offered as good effigies as the major ones that happened in the fall around the world. August and September were good months. He got to see Gabriel a lot in August and September. Then after November ninth there wasn’t anything until April. Which was why April was the only non-fall month Jack actually liked because he could always fucking count on April.

Jack was the awkward, tall, blonde, American in the Chinese market on April fifth. He was wearing appropriate clothing at least and could speak enough Mandarin to get by without looking like a total fool. It was a market near a temple, and thus a graveyard. He kept looking down at his paper fortune. It was around here somewhere. It wasn’t any of the Buddhist statues. He left the market, tried across the street at the temple. Jack didn’t know all the rules and rituals for Qingming but it was a much more somber event than then fall festivals. There weren’t that many people out and most graves had a incense burning by them, and the temple had plenty lit as well.

Jack found Gabriel in the shadow of a pillar, following the smell of toasted pumpkin seeds. His effigy had been that of a monk but like usual his head was something else. It was always hit or miss for Qingming. Sometimes it was a mask, other times it was a dragon dog face. Once he’d literally just had a bucket on his head. This year it was a smiling Buddhist monk mask. Or something. Jack didn’t know a lot about Chinese traditions and admitted rightly to it.

“There you are,” Gabriel said when they found each other. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”

“I always come.”

“You didn’t come for All Souls Day,” Gabriel said. Dia de los Natitas had been less pleasant because of that. Gabriel had been sulking the entire time. He’s just left his body somewhere and made Jack carry around his skull head the entire time because he was upset about it.

“It was across the world,” Jack sighed. “I said I’m sorry. Even if I’d gone you’d have missed me.”

“You didn’t even try.”

That annoyed Jack. “I’ve been coming to see you on death holidays for a hundred and fifty years, Gabriel,” he whispered harshly. “I look forward to them too. I’m sorry. I can’t teleport around the world when you come out on different continents. I wish I could. But I can’t.”

Gabriel looked away, annoyed but not at Jack. “Alright. I know I’m just being a brat.”

“No shit you are.” They stood in silence a minute, both stubborn about being annoyed at each other. Jack caved first. “Wanna go see where you came out?” he asked Gabriel. “We’ve never been here before. It could be fun.”

“Alright,” Gabriel said and after hesitating a moment Jack grabbed his hand and they walked out of the temple.

They spent the early night around the temple, looking in the store windows and the scenery. As later night came and things closed they spent the rest of the time in the park down the street, talking. Gabriel loved to know what Jack did when he wasn’t coming to see Gabriel. Jack told Gabriel about the things he did to amuse himself. He, in turn, tried to get Gabriel to talk about what it was like when he wasn’t on Earth. A hundred and fifty years and Gabriel was still cagey about it. He never said it was bad, it wasn’t like he was in hell or anything, but it wasn’t as interesting as Earth. And of course, Jack was on Earth and not where he went.

“Jack,” Gabriel asked as they walked back to the temple so Gabriel could step through his effigy before morning. Jack ‘hmmed’. “I’ve never asked because I never wanted to appear ungrateful but… why do you always come? It’s been a hundred and fifty years and you hardly ever miss an event. Why?”

Jack looked at Gabriel’s smiling mask and didn’t see the mask. He saw Gabriel’s face. His messy long hair and trimmed facial hair and frowning mouth that was deceptively easy to turn into a smile. Then he blinked and the smiling monk mask was back. He knew Gabriel didn’t remember. That was part of the deal. He’d never remember. If he did he’d never ask Jack such a question. “I just know what it’s like to be alone, that’s all,” Jack said. “No one should be alone. Especially on days like these. Especially since you don’t know anyone here. So I figure I’d do that.”

“That’s real nice of you. Heh, guess you’re as much of a boy scout as you look, then.”

Jack smiled a little. “Something like that,” he said as they snuck into the temple. They found Gabriel’s effigy.

“So what’s next? Gai Jatra?”

“Yeah,” Jack said. Five months. It was better than the five months between Di de los Natitas at least since Gai Jatra started the fall festivals when he’d see Gabriel more. He lived for Obon and Chuseck honestly. Three days in a row in August and September where he could see Gabriel and then there was the Hungry Ghost Festival between them. Sometimes that one lasted just one day, other times it lasted a few. It just depended. But he could always count on the Obon Festival and Chuseck. Had been harder to see Gabriel during Chuseck for a while because Korea had been divided but the Omnic Crisis unified all sorts of things and even if the Korean governments hadn’t been able to agree on some things they definitely agreed that they were willing to fight robots together. That turned into the country being reunified. “And you thought Dia de los Natatis seemed far away.”

“It’s going to take forever,” Gabriel groaned.

“Shit. I gotta go. Sun’s coming,” he said quickly as his phone started to vibrate. He raced out of the temple and past some very confused monks awake for morning duties. Luckily the gate was open and Jack managed to get into a building before the sun came up. He ended up being stranded in a cafe for part of a day but didn’t really mind. He just ordered a drink, went to the back, pulled his sunglasses on, and took a little nap before braving it outside in the shadows of the buildings cast to make it back to his hotel for a proper bit of rest.

—

The fairy tale was that the undead didn’t dream. That monsters couldn’t because they were monsters. Jack knew that was a lie. He knew because when he slept he dreamed. He dreamed of the sun and of Gabriel. The two were basically the same. He dreamed of the times before all this had happened.

In the first few decades of the twentieth century, Jack had been a young vampire. He’d been a mistake, he hadn’t been supposed to turn but his sire hadn’t left him with too much or too little blood and he had. It had been a really stressful time of his life and undead life. He’d moved to England because the weather was over all just better for vampires there since it was always so damn miserable. That and there were a few old covens there that didn’t get too up in arms when a new vampire showed up like some in America did and treated him like an infant. It was between the First and Second World Wars and times were good. Of course, until it wasn’t.

He met Gabriel when he’d come over to fight for the British since the Americans didn’t want any ‘negro soldiers’. Jack just kept his head down during the whole thing. Vampires could, potentially, make excellent soldiers since normal bullets couldn’t kill them and nothing short of being set on fire or getting your head cut off could stop them for long, but you’d have to disclose why you absolutely couldn’t go out and do day missions or day training and that just didn’t work. So Jack and his coven just stayed low. The coven ran a clinic in one part of London and a pub in another part. Got them a decent amount of blood without too many questions, and kept money coming in so they could survive. Jack helped at the pub as a bouncer since he was a modern guy’s height unlike a lot of his coven who were shorter from previous centuries.

Honestly the first time he ever met Gabriel he’d thrown him out of the pub for causing a scene and getting into a fight with some of the locals. To his surprise, he’d come back the next night to apologize and asked if he needed to pay for any damages. For the rest of the war any time Gabriel had time off he’d come by the pub, have a few drinks and chat with the staff. He always liked talking with Jack even though he was on the job. One thing sort of led to another and Gabriel asked him out on the down low. He’d almost said no but had done it anyway. It was the best and worst decision he’d ever made.

After the War had ended Gabriel ended up staying in London to help rebuild, and because Jack was there. He left the army and immediately grew his hair out long. It was Jack’s favorite thing. Even in his dreams he could smell it still. Just the soft smell of clean Jack swore smelled like coconut but Gabriel said he was crazy and just because his shampoo had coconut oil in it didn’t mean he smelled like god damn coconuts. It took Jack a few years to finally tell Gabriel why they could only meet at night, and why Gabriel was never allowed over his place. The coven didn’t allow humans in their communal housing. Safety issue. They didn’t care that Jack’s boyfriend was mortal, or frankly that Jack _had_ a boyfriend, they just didn’t want one in their home. They didn’t like that Jack had told him he was a vampire. They didn’t do anything about it, they were just annoyed by it and because the end, they were still British and were too passive-aggressive to actually do anything to Jack. Gabriel had been shocked and angry for a few weeks but like always he forgave Jack.

They’d had a good time together. A decade and a half at least. Jack lived with Gabriel about three-quarters of the time but still went back to his coven because they’d become his family and employed him. Jack loved when Gabriel would come inside during the day and smell like heat and sunshine and wouldn’t mind when Jack would play with his hair or press their limbs together like through Gabriel’s skin he could still feel the sun. Jack watched Gabriel get his first gray hair and the realization that the man he loved was mortal finally hit him. It was the first, and only, time Jack ever asked if Gabriel wanted to be with him forever. And Gabriel, the fucking asshole who liked to fool people into thinking he didn’t have a heart, had just said ‘You deserve to be loved by someone other than me your entire life, Jack. You’re too good for that.’

In the late fifties, someone found out about them. Not that Jack was a vampire, but that the two were lovers. They hadn’t liked the idea, reacted violently to it Jack came home after a shift at the pub to a bunch of drunken white guys who’d broken into their home and the smell of blood. A lot of blood. They’d had bats with them but were good, god fearing, Catholics the lot of them and they’d run screaming when Jack had shown them just _how_ big his teeth could get and threatened to drink their blood. He’d found Gabriel in their bed, beaten, bloody, and almost dead. Too weak to turn. The monsters had come in while he was sleeping since they knew they couldn’t have done anything to him while awake.

He hadn’t even thought about it. He’d just picked Gabriel up and taken him to his coven. They all liked Gabriel by this point and not just for the sake of Jack didn’t want him to die but there wasn’t a lot they could do on their own. Except one of them could. One of the older members, far older than any of them cared to remember, was a witch. Angela took Jack aside saying she could help. But if she did this Gabriel wouldn’t like as he was. There was no healing magic strong enough to save him entirely but she could save his soul, and not in the same way the church claimed they could. He’d just said yes because Gabriel hadn’t deserved this, and neither did Jack.

After the ritual Gabriel had ‘died’. Angela told Jack it had only worked because Gabriel hadn’t wanted to leave Jack alone and because Jack had loved him so much. She said that Gabriel was still ‘alive’ but in a way that was different from mortals, or even vampires. He lived now as a revenant-like thing, a wraith spirit of sorts that could pass into their world on the days when the barrier between living and dead were thin. Celebration days where people honored the dead and strong spirits could walk among them. To do so he’d possess an effigy set out to honor the dead at night but come the morning he’d have to do as all spirits do and return to where they had come from. It was the best she could do and if Jack ever decided that this should be over all he had to do was bury Gabriel’s head. Until then, she’d keep ahold of it. Angela still kept Gabriel’s skull in her parlor, waiting for when Jack could finally let Gabriel go, or when Gabriel finally asked to not see Jack anymore.

That had been almost a hundred and fifty years now. He did his best to never miss a day he could see Gabriel. In the beginning, he had because of travel costs and he just didn’t know where the hell to go. Then Angela had given him the paper fortune that told him when and where Gabriel’s effigy would be built. That and the fact that he was older, had made some good decisions in an effort to make money so he could travel easily, meant he didn’t miss many days now.

As the years dragged on his coven had asked why he never just got over Gabriel. He could find someone else. Jack knew he couldn’t. The truth was that in the beginning during the five-month dry spells he’d look for someone else. Not a replacement. Just like Gabriel had said. Jack deserved someone else to love him when he was gone. But he never found anyone who made him feel alive or as good as Gabriel did. Eventually, he stopped looking and his coven stopped asking. He knew they felt bad for him in a way but he didn’t let it bother him. The days he got to see Gabriel were the best days of the year.

Jack mainly dreamed of the fifteen years he got to spend with Gabriel in London. Or of the particularly good nights in the past century. Sometimes he had nightmares of blood and longing wishes that he’d killed those ignorant men who’d ruined his beautiful Gabriel. But usually the dreams were good. They were good enough that Jack didn’t want to step out in the noon day sun and be done with it.

—

For Chuseok Jack found Gabriel in a rural village in Korea. The merriment for the holiday was still going on even as dusk settled and the women were preparing for the ganggangsullae once it got dark enough and the moon came up. Jack, as usual, looked very out of place in this part of the world but really other than Halloween or All Saints/Souls Day he always looked a bit out of place. Gabriel’s effigy had been a person dressed as a cow with an unintentionally scary looking face. Jack had followed the smell of pumpkin seeds to him and found him in the back of a house, away from the festivities.

“You’re a cow twice in one year. Must be luck,” Jack teased him and gave his mask head a rough rub. Gabriel usually came as a person dressed a cow during Gai Jatra.

“I guess,” Gabriel just pushed his hand away.

“Everything alright?” Jack asked him. He was acting uncharacteristically moody tonight.

“I was just thinking,” he turned his ugly masked face towards Jack, “Not that I don’t appreciate it or understand. But why are you always here? What do you get out of this, Jack?”

Not for the first time, Jack thought about telling Gabriel. Angela said he’d have no memory of his mortal life. Jack had made the decision to keep their old relationship a secret so it wouldn’t be as painful for them. So Gabriel wouldn’t have to be hurt like Jack hurt. “I get to see you. Who doesn’t like having a friend who’s a spooky ghost? You know, spooky and sings songs to children and such.”

Gabriel didn’t find it as amusing as he’d hoped. “You’re lying to me, Jack,” he said. “It’s been a nagging feeling I’ve had for a few years, that you’re not telling me something. I was just ignoring it because I enjoy the company. Just because I’m… whatever this is doesn't mean I like being lied to and don’t know when someone is lying to me.”

“I’m not,” Jack lied like the lying liar he was.

Gabriel didn’t believe him. “Yes, you are. I like to think I know you pretty well. You’re keeping something from me. Something important. We’re friends, right? Why won’t you tell me?”

Jack looked at Gabriel helplessly. Part of him was scared of what Gabriel would do if he did remember. Would he be angry at Jack for doing this to him? He’d told Jack others should get the chance to love him and instead he was holding onto Gabriel because he still loved him. Or would he just not care? Would he become indifferent because it wasn’t a good answer? “I’m not lying to you,” Jack just said again.

Gabriel pushed off from the wall of the building. “Don’t fucking lie to me, boy scout,” he said and put his finger in Jack’s face for a moment. Then he stepped back. “I’ll see you when I don’t think you’re lying to me anymore,” and then he turned and walked away. Jack stood there in a stupor before going after him. Not quick enough though and watch Gabriel step up into the effigy he’d come out of. Jack stared at it. He didn’t know Gabriel could just go back at any time. He thought it was a time thing.

He pulled out his paper fortune. It was blank on both sides. He closed it, opened it again. Still blank on both sides. What did that mean? Usually it told him where Gabriel would come out next. Did that mean it only showed him where Gabriel _decided_ he would come out? Or at least decided he’d come out but the place was still random. So was Gabriel not coming out for Halloween? Jack felt a fist squeeze around his unbeating heart. Was he not going to see Gabriel again?

—

Jack checked the paper fortune every day. It was always blank on both sides. He’d lay awake during the day in his room in the coven and hold it above his head, turning it this way and that like if he looked at it a certain way it’d show itself. It never did. For one hour in October it showed the thirty-first and a location before it disappeared again. He asked Angela if there was something wrong with the paper fortune but she said there was nothing wrong with it. Gabriel wouldn’t be coming through to Earth on the thirty-first.

Childishly he still went to where the paper had said to go. He found several good candidates for Gabriel’s effigy but none of them ever turned into a ‘man in a costume’.

The paper was blank for Dia de los Muerto and All Saints/Souls Day the next day too. It was blank for Dia de los Natitas later in the month and Qingming in April. Jack didn’t know what to do. He was just stuck now. It wasn’t like he could go and _make_ Gabriel show himself. He was ‘dead’. He still checked the paper fortune, once when he woke up just before dusk, and once when he went to sleep after dawn. His coven worried about him but he just told them he was fine. He just focused on other things, like the fact that they had a new member so he was no longer the ‘baby’ anymore. It was a good distraction.

It didn’t show a time and place for Gai Jatra, the Obon Festival, the Hungry Ghost Festival, or even Chuseok. Jack didn’t let the rest of his coven know but it was driving him crazy. It had been an entire year and Gabriel still hadn’t come back and he felt like his heart was a raisin in his chest. The only thing that kept him going was what Gabriel had said, that he’d come back when he thought Jack wouldn’t lie to him anymore. By the time Chuseok came around Jack was ready to tell him whatever the hell he wanted to know. Just so Gabriel wouldn’t do this again. Five months at a time was painful enough. An entire year? Jack wouldn’t survive another year of this.

At a loss of what to do, he went to Angela. She’d done this, maybe she had some insight on how to help. He told her what had happened last year during Chuseok and what Gabriel had said. “Well, he’s just being stubborn,” Angela said.

“Can he like… see me out here? Or know things? Because I’d tell him.”

“No,” she said. “The spirits of the other world don’t know what goes on in this world. But they can interact with some things. It’s why some festivals directly involve the bodies of their dead ancestors and not just their spirits because they’re connected to the remains of their bodies.”

“Like bones?” Jack asked.

“Yes. Like bones,” Angela said and looked behind his shoulder to where Gabriel’s head sat on a shelf.

He looked behind him at it then back at her. “Could he hear me?”

“Maybe. I’ve never been really dead, so I don’t know. At the very least intent can be transferred across the barrier.”

“I’m going to feel dumb talking to a skull if nothing happens,” Jack said.

“Well, that isn’t my problem. You asked for help. Or you could decide that this might be a good time to say goodbye. You don’t have to torment yourself with this, Jack. You’re going to live, basically, forever. You could move on,” she frowned sadly at him.

“I don’t want to,” Jack said. “I still love him.”

She sighed at him, “Alright.” She got up, “Just put him back when you’re done. I like to keep an eye on him.”

“I will,” Jack said as she left the parlor. Jack sat there for a minute, figuring out what to say and then getting over feeling like an idiot to about to go talk to an inanimate object of his boyfriend’s old skull. He did get up and went over to the shelf and picked the skull up. Angela had attached the jaw to the rest of the skull so they wouldn’t get separated and he appreciated that. Still feeling a bit ridiculous he brought the skull back to the chair and sat.

He needed another minute to actually work up to talking to a fucking skull and not feel like a weirdo. Who knew if this would even work? But he figured, he was a vampire, there were weirder things in his life than talking to a skull. He lifted the skull up so he could look it in the eye holes. “Gabe,” he said. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I was lying to you. I’m sorry I lied to you all this time. I’ll tell you the truth. Please, just come back. I miss you.” That was all. He put the skull back down in his lap and pulled out the paper fortune. It was still blank and he felt like he should just stab himself with a stake because that would be significantly less painful than a broken heart. Then, right in front of him, a day and place appeared on the paper. He stood with a yell but half way through realize he didn’t have a hold on Gabriel’s skull and it cut off short so he could fumble it before clutching it to his chest so it didn’t clatter to the ground. “Shit,” he muttered and checked the paper fortune again to make sure it really did say something. It was for Halloween. That was in a week. So he had a week to get his shit together.

He went back over to the shelf. “I’ll see you soon,” he told Gabriel’s skull and put it back where he’d found it before leaving Angela’s parlor.

—

This year Gabriel’s effigy was in the middle of nowhere. Or rather it was somewhere but no one appreciated it. Only one house in the neighborhood had put up decorations for Halloween. They’d gone all out too with a fake graveyard and decorated their front yard with spooky decorations. But there were no trick or treaters. They all went to another neighborhood where the candy was better. The decorated house didn’t even have a bowl a candy out front and no one was on the streets. Anyone who wanted to do Halloween had gone somewhere else so even the houses were empty and dark. For all Jack knew he was one of the few people even around.

The sun went down and Jack got out of the car but didn’t go over to the setup. He just leaned against the driver’s side door and waited, watching the elaborate decoration of the headless horseman, waiting. He checked the paper fortune one more time but it was still there. Gabriel hadn’t changed his mind. He was still being a stubborn dickhead about it, though, which seemed about right, because he didn’t step out of the effigy until half an hour past sunset. Jack immediately smelled toasted pumpkin seeds as Gabriel half fell half climbed off the display, having to grab the front of his jack-o-lantern head so it didn’t roll off his shoulders. Then he stood up and looked around. He saw Jack leaning against the car and went over to him.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t come,” Jack said and couldn’t help himself. He reached out and touched the side of Gabriel’s pumpkin head like it was his real face.

“I heard you,” Gabriel said. “Somehow,” he cocked his head to the side a bit in confusion. He didn’t understand how he’d heard Jack. “You going to stop lying to me now?”

“Yeah,” Jack said softly. “Let’s go somewhere else so anyone around doesn’t wonder why a guy like you is wandering around in an empty neighborhood.”

“I could be going to a costume party, they don’t know,” Gabriel said, indignant. “We should go to one of those again, maybe. They were fun.” Jack had Gabriel get in the car. He had to take his head off to fit and put it in his lap so Jack could drive out of the neighborhood to a dirt road that went somewhere and nowhere but mainly just to get them out of the public eye. Jack turned off the car and looked at him, then down at his lap where his head was. “This is going to be a really awkward conversation if I have to look down at you the entire time.”

“My head doesn’t fit in here I’m _so_ sorry for the inconvenience,” Gabriel said and Jack could imagine the sarcastic eye roll. As it was his hands tipped the pumpkin on its side to at least attempt to simulate it. Jack got out of the car, Gabriel did too. He put his head back on as Jack leaned against the hood of the car. “So. What do you have to tell me?”

Jack looked down the empty dirt road for a few seconds. Then he looked at Gabriel. “I always come see you because I’m in love with you,” he said. Gabriel leaned back in surprise, his head seeming to come loose so he had to hold it in place.

“W-what?” Gabriel asked.

Jack sighed. “I’m just going to start at the beginning. Alright?” Gabriel nodded. So Jack did. He started at the beginning and told Gabriel everything. About them, about the assholes who’d beat him to death for being a homosexual, about what Jack and Angela had done. He told Gabriel about the paper fortune. About the fact why Gabriel never came back with a face, because his skull had never been buried. He told Gabriel why he’d never told him too, that he just wanted to be with him without both of them having to suffer through the separation. It took him a little while. There was a lot to tell.

Then he finished and there was silence between them. Gabriel just stood there, looking at him. Jack didn’t know what else to say to him. So he just said nothing. They stood in the darkness of just the star, moonlight and the light that came out of Gabriel’s head for a while. Jack watched the moon move across the sky over Gabriel’s shoulder.

Gabriel moved first. He took a few steps over to him and punched him, right in the face, with more force than he was expecting and he half slid off the hood of the car. “You asshole,” Gabriel hissed. Jack stared up at Gabriel in surprise and then Gabriel grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him up. “You did exactly what I told you not to do you fool,” he shook Jack a little.

“Huh?” Jack asked. He hadn’t told Gabriel about what he’d said.

“You jogged my memory. I remember it now. I remember us. You stupid stupid-” he just shook Jack some more saying that over and over in English and Spanish he was so annoyed with Jack.

Jack had enough after about thirty seconds. He grabbed Gabriel’s wrists. “Stop that,” he said and made him stop, pulling his hands off Jack’s shirt.

”You should have let me go.”

“I wasn’t- I couldn’t do that,” Jack was furious at the very thought.

“And now what? Now we’re in a loop. We’ve been doing the same thing for over a hundred years. Nothing’s changed Jack,” Gabriel folded his arms and with the scary pumpkin head and the sharp leather costume looked rather intimidating. “This isn’t good. For us but especially not for you _capullo_.”

“I had to watch you die, Gabriel, in my arms. I would have been better if you just got old. At least I could have said goodbye. I didn’t. Instead, you were just gone. I’m sorry I couldn’t just stop loving you,” he used sarcasm to hide how much it hurt him to have to say that. “But I couldn’t, alright? I even tried. I tried for ten god damn years after you were gone in the summer and winter months. I couldn’t.”

They stood there in silence. “I understand, Jack. But I don’t forgive you,” Gabriel said.

Jack’s heart broke. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you-

“Why? So you could keep lying to me? Keep hurting yourself? It’s been a century, Jack. Let me move on. You deserve it too.”

“I lost you once, Gabe. Don’t tell me to lose you again.”

Gabriel stood in front of Jack. In life, they’d been the same height but the jack-o-lantern and boots added about four inches. He half expected Gabriel to punch him or shake him again. Instead, he just grabbed Jack’s face in both hands and Jack had to look into the flameless light coming from the inside of the jack-o-lantern. This close the smell of toasted pumpkin seeds was almost overwhelming. “Let me go, and I’ll come back,” he said.

“That isn’t how it works, Gabe,” Jack lifted one hand to hold Gabriel’s hand in place against his face.

“You literally trapped my soul in a purgatory state where I can’t go forward or backward,” Gabriel’s voice was sort of menacing.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said softly. “I just love you, I just missed you. Love makes you do stupid things.”

Gabriel sighed. “Let me go, Jack,” he said seriously. “If there’s any justice left for people like me or vampires, I’ll come back to you.”

“You believe that? Really?”

“God wouldn’t have had me meet you if he didn’t have something in mind for us, Jackie.”

Jack closed his eyes, is brows drawn down, and took a deep breath. “Alright,” he whispered. “Alright.” He looked back at Gabriel. “Swear you’ll come back to me.”

“You have my word,” Gabriel said. Jack didn’t know if he was being truthful or not or if he was just saying shit to make Jack feel better but he wanted it to be true. He wanted to hope that somehow, someway, Gabriel would come back to him.

“I’ll uh… contact Angela, tell her to give your skull a proper burial. So you can rest.”

“Now?” Gabriel asked.

“If you want me too,” Jack said but hated it. He hated it.

“I do,” Gabriel said softly.

Jack sighed. “Alright.” He pulled out his mobile and with his other hand reached out and touched the side of the jack-o-lantern. He knew Angela was probably sleeping but he called her anyway. He had to call her twice before she woke up.

“Hello?” she asked, half asleep.

“Angela, it’s Jack.”

“Oh, Jack. What a pleasant surprise. Not. Remind me to lock you in a coffin when you get back.”

“I need you to do something for me.”

She sighed. “What?”

“Bury Gabriel’s skull for me,” he said looking at Gabriel as he said that.

Angela didn’t say anything for a second. “You sure? Did you two fight or something?”

“No. No, nothing like that,” Jack assured her.

“Jack, if I do this, he can’t come through anymore.”

“I know,” Jack said with a swallow. Gabe’s fingers toyed with some of his hair like he used to and Jack almost told her never mind. “Just… do it for me.”

“You don’t want to do it?”

“No. I wouldn’t be able to. And then he’d go away alone again.”

“Well, it’s still daylight here, Jack. It’ll have to be in a few hours when I can go outside. Is that alright?”

“Yeah. That’s fine,” Jack said. “Try to do it before daybreak here.”

“I’ll try,” she promised him.

“Okay. Thank you, Angela.”

“Your voice and words don’t agree, Jack.”

“I’ll see you when I get home,” and with that Jack hung up. “She’ll do it once it’s dark out over there,” he told Gabriel.

“Good,” Gabriel said.

“I’m going to miss you,” Jack said.

“I know.”

“I don’t think I’ll stop loving you either.”

“I know, Jackie, I know,” and Gabriel hugged him. Jack hugged him back.

They ended up staying the rest of the night in the car so just in case it took Angela a bit longer than expected Jack wouldn’t be in danger. Gabriel had his body sit out on the road since he wouldn’t need it anymore and didn’t need to go back to the effigy anymore. Jack sat in the passenger seat with the jack-o-lantern in his lap. They talked most of the night. Mostly about their time together in London, or the especially good nights they’d had together in the past century. Costume parties Gabriel always won or parades they’d seen or parties they’d crashed. Or the ‘tamer’ things they’d done like two years ago Dia de los Muetro or being in Tokyo during the Obon Festival, or the time Gabriel had been mistaken for someone else’s stand in cow during Gai Jatra despite very obviously being an adult.

Dawn was an hour or so off when Jack got a message from Angela saying she was going to bury the skull now. “Well… that was Angela. This is it,” Jack said.

“Don’t sound so upset, Jack. You get to say goodbye this time.”

“Asshole. I don’t _want_ to say goodbye,” Jack snapped. The messenger dinged. Angela was giving him until the hour before he finished the burial. That was in three minutes.

“I’ll be back,” Gabriel said.

“You better be,” Jack said, rubbing the side of the pumpkin. “I never asked. Can you feel that? Me touching your mask?”

“I can. Kinda,” Gabriel said. “It’s a sensation I know is you touching me, if that makes sense.”

“Yeah. It does.” Jack said with a slight smile. “Goodbye, Gabriel,” he said and kissed the jack-o-lantern between the carved mouth and nose.

“I’ll see you again, Jack. I will. I love you.”

A few seconds after he said that, before Jack could get out his own ‘I love you too’, the light dimmed in Gabriel’s jack-o-lantern head. Then it too faded and became nothing in Jack’s hands. Jack sighed and leaned back in the seat, staring out the window even as the sun rose over the trees. When he stared into the sun behind the tinted windows he convinced himself that was why his eyes were leaking and not because he’d started crying.

—

Sometimes he still looked at the paper fortune. Just to see if it ever changed. It never did. A hundred years passed and it never changed. Jack kept it on his bedside table in his room in the coven house. After a few decades he’d just stopped looking at it because it just made him sad.

It was sometime past four in the morning. Outside London was asleep, for the most part. Their pub was closed and everyone had come home from a night of work. Jack was laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. Across the room the TV was playing a rerun from earlier that night. It was one he’d seen already so he was only half paying attention to it. He wasn’t thinking about anything in particular, just enjoying how soft his bed was after a shift on his feet when someone knocked on his door. “Yeah?” he called.

Someone stuck their head in, “Hey, Jack, come see.”

“See what?” Jack groaned. He just wanted to lay in bed all night and have half a pint before he went to sleep.

“Visitor. New kid,” they said cheerfully.

“Uhg. I’ll pass,” Jack turned his head away to make a point. From here he could see the paper fortune. He hadn’t actually looked at it in about thirty years and he knew it was just his imagination that made him think he could see writing on it.

He could feel their disapproving look from across the room, “Reinhardt said everyone needs to come see the new kid. They’re fresh risen from Portugal. C’mon.”

Jack groaned and complained under his breath even as he rolled out of bed and stomped out of his room, not even putting on shoes. “Alright, where are they?”

Jack followed them down to the main foyer where the rest of the coven had gathered and Reinhardt was introducing their newest member. For some reason it smelled like pumpkin spice in the place but he had no idea why. Which loser had bought pumpkin pie syrup for their coffee out of season? The fresh risen was a darker skinned man in his late twenties, early thirties at most, with a mohawk made of loose curls and what could honestly only be described as racing stripes shaved into the buzz on both sides. He was tall and toned but Jack wouldn’t have called him muscular. He wasn’t all Portuguese, there looked like there was some North African in him too, not entirely a surprise. Next to Reinhardt he was a shrimp but so was everyone else so that wasn’t saying much.

“Alright, is everyone here?” Reinhardt asked as everyone finished shuffling into the foyer. Jack remembered when he’d been in that position, shoved up under Reinhardt’s meaty arm, meeting his new coven for the first time. “We have a new brother tonight. Just flew in. I expect you all to make him feel welcome after his last coven threw him out because they’re _right_ idiots.” That got a bubble of laughter from a few of the coven. “Introduce yourself,” he encouraged.

“Ah, hello,” he had a very nice sounding voice and accent Jack liked immediately. “My name’s Gabriel but you can call me Biel. Heh, only my mamá called me Gabriel.”

Jack distantly heard everyone welcoming him but he was just staring. A few people went forward to greet the new member of their family properly and he graciously accepted it but he didn’t seem like a very happy sort of guy so didn’t smile. Jack was just rooted in place. Biel looked from those directly around him to scan the rest of the coven and his eyes stopped on Jack. There was no one behind or right next to Jack, he was definitely looking at Jack. He smiled a little, just a slight quirk of the lips, right at Jack and Jack felt like his heart was going to explode out of his chest. Instead he just smiled back.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh yeah, did I mention this is a rencarnation fic? cause it's a surprise reincarnation fic lols
> 
> If you liked it, leave a comment. I appreciate it and it makes me happy and means you get more Overwatch fic from me /worthless shill


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